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This is a view of the beautiful Oura Bay in Henoko, Okinawa where the U.S. military has begun construction of a massive multi-function base to include two airstrips, a deep water base to accommodate U.S. aircraft carries and supply ships.

I was fortunate to go out into Oura Bay in a boat with other visitors including reporters from the two local newspapers, one of whom ran an article with a picture of me.

Camp Schwb is a massive U.S. Marine base on the shores of Oura Bay. The new base will be constructed to the right of this photo. The plan is to dump tons and tons of gravel t and concrete to fill in the bay in order to extend the runways out into the bay.

As the S. Koreans destroyed the beautiful seashore in Gangjeong Village, the Japanese are doing the same to accommodate America’s plan to add more bases and military installations. In the process, America continues to displace indigenous people, take their land, and destroy some of the most remote, beautiful, pristine and sacred places all over the world.

This was our welcoming. The Japanese Coast Guard and national police. There were at least 20 boats with teams of Coast Guard patrolling the waters and denying our boat entry into the restricted area. Two large yachts commanded the operation.

I spent three days in Henoko filming interviews with local mayors and activists from July 26-29. I will return to Okinawa for three more days of filming and interviewing where I will be aided by several women who are professional interpreters and a young man who was born and raised in Tokyo to a English father and Japanese mother. So, he’s fluent in both languages, actually sounds like an American. Ian Schimizu has also been indispensable, carrying my heavy bags full of equipment.

It becomes readily apparent that like S. Korea, Japan is an occupied country with some 50,000 US military personnel on more than 40 bases. But what is most alarming is the fact that 70% of the American presence is located in Okinawa.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people who have seen The Ghosts of Jeju and who have welcomed me with open arms and offered to assist me in any way they can.

Mariko Kurioka, a Japanese woman who was part of a team that translated Ghosts into Japanese, presented me with $2,400 from sales of the film in Japan and Okinawa.

Today, Sunday, August 2nd, I fly back to Okinawa for three more days of filming before continuing on to Hiroshima for the 70th anniversary on August 6.

With the threat of a nuclear Armageddon and the looming catastrophic consequences of climate change, the Doomsday Clock is now at three minutes to midnight.

Once The Ghosts of Jeju was completed, I knew there was an even bigger story that had to be told and last year I again came to you for assistance to make a return trip to Jeju. Unfortunately, I became ill two weeks before departure and the trip had to be postponed.

This new film will begin with the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and trace the imperial advance of the U.S. throughout the Pacific and its effects not only on the lives and livelihoods of the island peoples, but the degradation of the environment everywhere there are U.S. military bases or where the U.S. has conducted wars and war games.

This film will document the effects of U.S. imperialism, through the personal testimonies and eyewitness accounts of activists and the indigenous peoples whose lives have been ruined or seriously degraded because of the American presence in their lands.

It will also show the effects of the American military presence on their towns and villages and their pristine ecological environments, and it will document the massive popular uprisings against this U.S. presence and the complicity of their own governments in furthering the threat of war not only with China but Russia as well.

If you have been following the news about the US-NATO provocations in Ukraine and along Russia’s border, as well as the so-called Pivot to Asia to check China’s expansion, you undoubtedly realize how dangerous and provocative these actions are. The threat of a nuclear Armageddon ending all life on Earth hangs in the balance.

I’m sure that most of you are as troubled and concerned as I am about the effects of war making here at home and abroad. Millions of innocent people have been massacred throughout the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of children and innocent civilians have already been killed by drone attacks.

Simultaneously, there are no hopeful signs that anything meaningful will be done to mitigate the pending catastrophic effects of Climate Change that will make life on Earth unsustainable. No one can predict just when extinction will happen, but the threat of a nuclear exchange and the expected consequences of climate change are pushing the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.

The underlying cause of this dire situation is Capitalism and its voracious appetite to consume all of the Earth’s resources without adequate replenishment. In order to maintain its position of a unipolar superpower in the world, the United States, recognizing the economic threat of the emergence of China and a Chinese-Russian partnership, has the largest and most lethal military in the world to maintain that position.

Here at home, as well as throughout NATO countries, and America’s allies in Japan and the Pacific, the costs of endless war are in the trillions of dollars and continue to rise every day. The results are extreme austerity spreading through all levels of society.

Here in America, to pay for the ships, planes, bombs and missiles, and the costs related to keeping hundreds of thousands of troops in over 130 countries, social uplift programs, education, infrastructure improvements, renewable energy investments, light rail development, and even veterans’ benefits are being raided. The current Congress is also coming after Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

This is a global struggle that binds all of us together. And as John Pilger states, “Make no mistake it is an epic struggle. The alternative is not just conquest of far away countries; it is the conquest of us, of our minds, our humanity and our self-respect. If we remain silent, victory over us is assured.”

My goal for this film is to continue to educate and open the eyes of Americans and people around the world about the most pernicious and destructive global forces that are threatening life on the planet. Therefore, the title, “Three Minutes to Midnight.”

With nothing but word-of-mouth and many grassroots organizations, The Ghosts of Jeju is still playing in more than 15 countries, and it has been translated by volunteers into six languages.

My goal for this film is $10,000 and that will cover travel and travel expenses to Kyoto, Hiroshima, Okinawa, Jeju, The Marshall Islands, and Hawaii on the return. I’ve been invited to attend the annual Global Network meeting in Kyoto, Japan from July 28 to August 2. Therefore I will need your help by June 1st.

We already have an offer of a $500 donation to match the first $500 that I can raise.

Your contributions will be completely tax-deductible if you contribute on the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space website: http://www.space4peace.org/

Simply click the “Donate” button, enter the amount you wish to donate and in the comments declare it is for Regis Tremblay’s film.

Should you wish to send a check, make it out to Global Network and mail it to 209 River Rd., Woolwich, Maine 04579. Be sure to put Regis Tremblay in the “for” line.

Some of you contributed last year and I still have $1,000 from that campaign. Please contribute again whatever you can.

Filmed March 21, 2015 in front of Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. On a snowy, cold winter day, just as the workers were heading home after a shift change, some 50 activists gathered to protest the building of war ships, and to participate in the national day of mobilization against the war machine.

Paco Michelson and his wife Hee Eun “Silver” Park attended the event and spoke passionately about their three years in Gangjeong Village where the massive naval base under construction is destroying the village, livelihoods and the environment.

Bruce Gagnon gave an impassioned talk about what the military industrial complex is doing to our government and our treasury, and how America’s aggression against Russia has the world on the brink of a nuclear World War III.

Lisa Savage wrote the street theater play, Canteen Annie at the Bomb Factory, and Maureen Kehoe-Ostensen organized the event as part of the lenten vigils at BIW.

As fate would have it, my return to Jeju was derailed when I came down with “C Diff” two weeks before my August 4th departure. I was hospitalized for five days and was on antibiotics for two weeks. I lost a great deal of strength and the doctors would not permit me to travel. As of this date, I am feeling fine, but still get tired easily and don’t have much stamina.

Joyakgol, who accompanied me during the March tour of The Ghosts of Jeju beginning with the Chicago Peace On Earth Film Festival and screenings in California, did the final edit on the Korean translation and had the subtitles placed on the master. Joyakgol is a genius at marketing and promotion and created a press package that went to all of the media outlets in S. Korea. As I write this, The Ghosts of Jeju is being distributed throughout S. Korea and will soon be available on this website.

Because of this exposure, I was interviewed on August 8th by the English-language radio station in Seoul about my views on Pope Francis’ visit to South Korea next week, The Ghosts of Jeju, and my commitment and ties to the peaceful, non-violent struggle in Gangjeong.

Here is the link to that 14 minute interview that was slightly edited.

I also produced the following 22 minute video that I was to have presented at the Pan Island Peace Camp held in Gangjeong. I made the video because I thought it would be better than a talk with slides, and in the event that I was delayed or refused entry into S. Korea. Turns out, I wasn’t able to go anyway.

The video reveals the origins of U.S. Militarism dating back to the discovery of the Americas. It also makes clear what is behind militarism and why the U.S. has invaded other countries more than 300 times since 1798. The video explains why it is important to understand that it is NOT American presidents and the U.S. Congress that are behind wars, militarism and imperial domination, but the “shadow government” that has taken over our government.

My recent illness has not cancelled my return to Jeju, but only postponed it until early 2015 when I will travel from Hawaii, Okinawa, Jeju, Tiawan, and down to the Philippines to film my new documentary on the effects of U.S. militarism in the Pacific and the popular uprisings against it.

The struggle against the construction of that massive naval base by the peaceful, non-violent villagers of Gangjeong and their supporters has inspired all who have seen The Ghosts of Jeju because of their indomitable spirit, energy, and persistence in the face of insurmountable odds.

I believe the only hope we have of defeating the dark forces that would destroy us and our world is in the massive, peaceful, non-violent uprisings we are seeing all over the globe against Capitalism, greed, and the attempt to control the world through full-spectrum domination by the U.S. Military serving the needs of the big banks, multi and transnational corporations, the Military Industrial Complex, and the Oligarchy that have taken over our government and many governments of the world.

To repeat my closing remarks in The Ghosts of Jeju, “By going to Jeju, I found my own voice and realized that knowledge demands responsibility and action. With citizenship in this country comes a responsibility for its deeds. The least we can do is amplify the voices of Gangjeong.”

Relevant two years ago, and so relevant today. Kathy Kelly is an incredible peace worker and I am so proud to have arranged this Up Close and Personal Interview with Kathy on her visit to Maine in 2012.

In this edition, massive protests around Korea; almost naked Korean grannies resist hundreds of police protesting the placement of high voltage electrical towers in Miryang; sneak preview of short clip of longer interview I made of Chris Hedges (will appear in my next film).

Bruce Gagnon, my friend and coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, screened the film for his international board meeting in Sweden this evening (6/29/13). Here are his remarks:

“It was a smashing hit….people were crying and they were clapping at the end…..I handed out the DVD’s strategically to key leaders in various Swedish cities, and from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Japan and Mexico…..people passed the hat to send money to the village but I insisted they keep the money towards sending a representative from Sweden to the village ASAP……they loved the music, the story, and the resistance…..many people sent congrats to you….it’s was a European opening night showing……5 stars”

This evening, Bruce Gagnon, my friend and coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space screened the film for his board at the annual meeting in Sweden tonight (6/29/13). Here are his remarks:

It was a smashing hit….people were crying and they were clapping at the end…..I handed out the DVD’s strategically to key leaders in various Swedish cities, and from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Japan and Mexico…..people passed the hat to send money to the village but I insisted they keep the money towards sending a representative from Sweden to the village ASAP……they loved the music, the story, and the resistance…..many people sent congrats to you….it’s was a European opening night showing……5 stars

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Testimonials

"It was a smashing hit....people were crying and they were clapping at the end.....I handed out the DVD's strategically to key leaders in various Swedish cities, and from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Japan and Mexico.....people passed the hat to send money to the village but I insisted they keep the money towards sending a representative from Sweden to the village ASAP......they loved the music, the story, and the resistance.....many people sent congrats to you....it's was a European opening night showing......5 stars. Add Russia to list of places I sent DVD home with....a man who works directly for Putin."